- Group thinko A certain set of conditions is present: The group is under pressure (e.g. during war, when competing with a different business, etc.) Perception of external threat Biased in a particular direction Dissent is discouraged Group members assure each other they are doing the right thing To avoid group think and bad choices leaders should play “devil’s advocate,” then people will be less likely to conformo E.g. Holocaust, mob rioting, etc.- Cognitive dissonanceo “The perceptual incongruity that occurs when there is a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and behavior”o We are most happy when our attitude matches our behavioro Discrepancies lead to dissonance E.g. Leon Festinger: proposed that cognitive dissonance occurs when there is a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and a behavior- Dissonance causes anxiety and tension, which motivates people to reduce the dissonance- People reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes or behaviors- Or they rationalize or trivialize the discrepancy- Study: people were asked to perform a tedious and boring task and at the end of the study they were either paid $1 or $20 to tell people in the waiting room that the study was interesting. Later they were asked to rate how enjoyable the study was. People who received $1 said the study was more enjoyable than those paid $20. Our brain changes its attitude because it doesn’t like the idea that we wasted our time with a boring study and only received $1.o Postdecisional dissonance: people tend to be sure about their decisions after they have made them because they like to think that they are happy with the choices they have madeo Justifying effort: we justify things that make us cognitively or emotionally uncomfortable E.g. hazing- if you have gone through a lot to become part of a fraternity you will be very committed to the group, otherwise you will feel like it was all for nothing E.g. cults- you gradually give up more and more from your life (your house, your children, etc.) and you can’t stop following what the cult wants you to do because you are so invested and don’t want your time and effort to have been wasted- Behaviors are consistent with attitudeso An attitude is more likely to predict behavior, to be consistent over time, and to be resistant to change The stronger it is The more personally relevant it is The more specific it is If it is formed through direct experienceo Attitude accessibility predicts behavior that is consistent with the attitudeo Explicit vs implicit attitudes: what you show/are aware of vs. attitudes you are unaware of- A view of classic research/social situations related to social psychology conceptso Self-fulfilling Prophecy theory by Rosenthal (2002)o Rice’s 3rd graders: Stereotypes/Prejudiceo Asch’s Conformity Researcho Milgram’s Obedience Researcho Stanford Prison Studyo The “Real World”- Self-fulfilling Prophecy theory by Rosenthal (2002)o “One person’s expectations for another person’s behavior comes to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy.”o “The behavior expected actually came to pass because the expecter expected it”o What we expect to happen happens, because our expectations influence the outcomeo Video on a teacher’s expectations and IQ A group of children was randomly chosen to be the “smart” group- the teacher expected these children to be smarter These children ended up showing greater intellectual gain than the rest of the class IV: teacher’s expectations DV: IQ Rosenthal’s analysis- 4 purported causal factors/mechanisms:- Climate: the teacher was kinder to the “smart” children, both verbally and non-verbally- Input: the “smart” children were given more material to learn- Response opportunity: the “smart” children were given more and longer opportunities to answer questions- Feedback: the “smart” children were given more feedback, both praise and criticism, compared to the other children (because the others had lower expectations and the teacher was pleasantly surprised if they did well and didn’t offer good criticism)o Video on welding students The instructor was told that 5 men in his welding class were good at welding (although they were actually chosen randomly) IV: teacher’s expectations DVs:- Welding abilities- Learning speed- Attendance- How the 5 were described by others The 5 “good” welders were better at welding, faster at learning, had better attendance, and were described as good welders by others at the end of the classo Labeling theory: labeling individuals a certain way has an effect on people’s expectations of them which in turn influences their behavioro Implicit attitudes shape behavior- we do not realize that our attitudes and expectations affect the world around us- How we socially construct prejudiceo Video on prejudice: The Social Construction of Differences and the Formation & Internalizing of Biased Stereotypes There is a lot of power in cognitive control- we all have different beliefs about situations and we believe that we see the world accurately (although we don’t always) This leads to prejudice. We dislike and fear others because they are different E.g. Jane Elliot’s 3rd grade experiment in Riceville, Iowa (1968)- Conducted after Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination- Jane Elliot, a 3rd grade teacher, told her class that brown-eyed people were inferior and blue-eyed people were superior- The brown-eyed people had to wear collars so people could distinguish them from a distance (this is quite like the Jews having to wear stars during the Holocaust)- During recess the children separated into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and some fought with each other- Confirmation bias: the teacher shared biased evidence with her class. She said that George Washington had blue eyes, and that one of the children’s parents who had brown eyes kicked his son.- People attend to and then store in memory social information consistent with existing schemaso Stereotypes are based on automatic categorization Self-fulfilling prophecy Stereotype threat- Theory of why there is decreased performance: (1) physiological stress affecting prefrontal functioning; (2) a tendency for people to think about their performance, which can distract them from the task; and (3) attempts to suppress negative thoughts and emotions, which require a